Quickstart Guide

View source: docs/02-quickstart.md on GitHub

Note: After completing this setup, use the pod CLI for all operations.

This is the fastest path to a working Bonsai Pod. If you only follow one file, follow this one.

Prerequisites

You need:

A DigitalOcean account
A Mac or Linux machine with SSH
A Discord server where you can add a webhook
An SSH key already added to DigitalOcean

Step 1 — Create the Pod Droplet

Create a new DigitalOcean droplet with:

OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Size: 2–4 GB RAM
Authentication: SSH key only
Networking: default (public IPv4)

Name it something obvious, like: bonsai-pod-dev

Step 2 — SSH into the Pod

From your local machine:

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

Update the system:

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y git

Step 3 — Create the Bonsai Admin User

adduser bonsai
usermod -aG sudo bonsai

Copy your SSH key to the new user:

mkdir -p /home/bonsai/.ssh
cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/bonsai/.ssh/authorized_keys
chown -R bonsai:bonsai /home/bonsai/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/bonsai/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/bonsai/.ssh/authorized_keys

Switch to it:

su - bonsai

Step 4 — Lock Down SSH (Recommended)

In a separate terminal, confirm you can log in as bonsai:

ssh bonsai@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

Then lock down SSH on the server:

sudo sed -i 's/^#*PermitRootLogin.*/PermitRootLogin no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo sed -i 's/^#*PasswordAuthentication.*/PasswordAuthentication no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw enable
sudo systemctl restart ssh

Step 5 — Clone the Repository

mkdir -p ~/bonsaios
cd ~/bonsaios
git clone git@github.com:masoninthesis/BonsaiPod.git bonsai-pod
cd bonsai-pod

Step 6 — Verify the Pod is Alive

You should be able to:

Generate a status report
See a Discord message posted
Confirm ClawdBot is running

If that works, your Bonsai Pod exists.

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